Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle will be charged today with federal crimes in a bill of information and will resign at noon in a one-sentence letter to the Secretary of State, according to a source close to Hingle. Another source close to the case said that businessman Aaron Bennett will be also charged in a separate bill of information this afternoon in connection with payoffs to Hingle.

Jiff Hingle, left, and Aaron Bennett

Hingle has been under scrutiny for months following reports in The Times-Picayune and on WVUE-TV about some of his financial arrangements. He agreed to not seek reelection to the post he's held for two decades while helping federal investigators with a sweeping corruption probe.

Sources close to the case tell The Times-Picayune that Hingle wore a wire and asked Bennett for money in exchange for getting him paid on contracts with the sheriff's office.

Hingle admitted to The Times-Picayune that he accepted gratuities from Bennett while Bennett's company Benetech was being paid nearly $1 million to manage the construction of the Plaquemines Parish jail. They dined and drank at restaurants in New Orleans and New York and attended a New York Yankees game in box seats.

Hingle will be charged with accepting at least $10,000 from Bennett in exchange for giving Benetech favorable treatment, a source close to the case said.

Read the documents

While Benetech lost the contract less than a year after landing it in late 2007, it managed to stay on the sheriff's jail project as a subcontractor to the new project manager, Boston-based Camp Dresser & McKee.

WVUE reported that Hingle used a personal credit card to pay a local production company for videos, commercials and other items, then got reimbursed by his public office and his campaign for payments to the same production firm.